May I Help You

Here's a line of famous Hindi Song "अभी ना जाओ छोड़ कर, के दिल अभी, भरा नहीं "
Translate: " Please don’t leave yet, my heart isn’t satiated yet"

There were moments when dreams lingered unfulfilled or loved ones weren't prepared for the final farewell or they simply just wanted more time.

This drama can be perfectly described by those song lines. "May I Help You," or more fittingly, "May I try to help you fulfill your one last wish."

Is this episodic? I wouldn't say so exactly, because the stories continue into the next episodes, but there are plenty of stories covered throughout.

It's a very heavy watch. It's more like a slice of life, and you have to appreciate the essence of its pacing to grasp the emotions of each "death story." I have to say, I sobbed during many of the stories—it was definitely a cryfest for me.

So where did it go wrong for me?

❌ SFL entered randomly and exited just as randomly.
❌ They used many characters as "plot devices" after giving them so much story and character, only to ruin it by the end of the show.
❌ Some stories lacked depth or were simply too short.
❌ The history between the ML and SFL made the ML's character pretty inconsistent, given that he was very good at communicating.

✅ The leads were very good at communicating, their relationship was less heart fluttering but more mature.
✅ 80% of the death stories were so beautifully written, and I loved their execution.
✅I loved almost all the supporting characters, 1-2 were partially annoying but it's fine😭

Hyeri is a convincing crier; it's not just about her emotions and tears, but also the way her voice changes when she cries.

Jun Young, the man you are, his characters are always so radiant and interesting to watch, imma keep eye on your upcoming projects 🙈

Over-all, there were some noticable inconsistencies and some plot lines were extremely unnecessary but I still liked the show and it's worth a shot✨

Thank you for reading my review 🐻✨

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Why ?

If you are aware on Hotel de Luna plot, it’s kind of the same. This drama didnt start good but it ended well. I was not able to follow the story on the 1st few episodes but I understand it as I watch the succeeding ones. My suggestion is for you to prepare a box of tissue and dont watch this if you are too emotional and even when you have colds! you won’t be able to breathe. lol. ML is so good looking and I love his acting. FL is so-so, not that good, not that bad also. Cant feel any spark for both leads. The supporting characters were good. Great choice of casts. Definitely worth to watch but I wont rewatch this anytime soon. It’s too painful for me.

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Redemption is slow in coming but does eventually arrive

It finally made sense in the last 10 minutes of the 16th episode, even if it meant enduring some slooooow moments. I would venture that this story was reverse-engineered from the ending. I thought the majority of the last episode was over the top and made me wonder if the writer had personal experience they were drawing upon. I didn't see much chemistry between the ML and FL, and the ML's uncle was particularly annoying. But not as hateable as the ML's ex or her mother. The priest might have been the most likeable person in the show. And the bad guy cries way too much. Regardless, there were enough entertaining moments to justify watching it...once.

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IM BEGGING YOU WATCH IT PLZ

This was hands down an AMAZING DRAMA. I really reccomend this if you've liked dramas like "move to heaven", "tommarow", "mystic pop up bar" then this is just the one for you. Plot 10/10 characters 10/10 I have no complaints. Its a drama about life and death and its both sad and happy its beautiful drama honestly. 😂 im not really good at writing reviews BUT ALL I WANNA SAY IS THIS DRAMA WAS AMAZING. I think i need to write more because it needs to be 500 charcaters erm what else to say the romance was rlly nice it teaches you about how to be there for someone and support them when they are struggling you can be the perosn they want to lean on. OH THE PLOT TWIST was rllly good but also sad because i was rooting for that character and i couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of sorrow for them but im glad they got what the deserved in the end.

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More Than I Expected…

She’s a funeral director with the ability to see the souls of the recently deceased in her care. She’s been tasked with granting the last wishes of 21 people or her days will be filled with bad luck. *Full disclosure: it took me several episodes to warm up to her.*

He’s a former doctor just trying to survive each day after his younger brother dies. He now works as an errand boy willing to do any legal task.

Their “meet cute”? Her boyfriend hires him to break up with her… 😳

I really liked this drama. It’s heartwarming watching the Leads’ relationship develop & the bond of friendship deepen into a healing & unshakable love for each other. The friendships they each share with their own crews are beautiful too.

It’s also heartbreaking because it makes it real that death is final - we don’t get a second chance to say goodbye or tell those dear to us how much we love them.

I really loved our Leads, especially the ML. I appreciated that he drew very clear lines with the SFL & didn’t allow for misunderstandings with the FL. I liked that the FL never entertained thoughts of the SML (which, with his character twist, thank god!) I adored their care of one another & how, when revelations were made & later tragedy struck, they never broke up or let each other face it alone.

And I LOVED how the ML never hesitated to hold the FL’s hands - total swoon worthy moments! (iykyk) ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

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-⬇️ S P O I L E R S 🚫 B E L O W ⬇️-


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The things I always want to know 😏😉…
- First(real)Kiss : ep.10💋
- Together : ep.11 👩🏻‍❤️‍👨🏻
- BreakUp: Nope 💖

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Interesting story but female lead doesn't "sell" it. Surprising villain reveal

Who the villain is, was a startling but sad surprise.
Lee Hye Ri isn't very expressive & her character is very hard to like as she's shallow & selfish. Male lead's character isn't all that great either, though at least he has a great back story that explains him.
The romance was lacking though there is a happy {wedding-less] ending for main couple.
Some plot devices were really really distasteful & unnecessary (bedsides making no sense so they seemed forced)
such as:

**** Spoilers***

Her first "ghost" was a child-when her boss later literally says about another child's funeral, that it's too soon for her to be in charge of a child so soon in her job experience , so ? That she is in charge of her father's body preparation !? NO NO NO ! they use that just so she can have closure, but honestly it was weird & wrong!

Male lead was with his ex for 10 (?) years -how can we not empathize with her ?

I did really like how all the people that she was in charge of [ ghosts] were related to a certain event, but I found it odd & confusing that the event had nothing to do with her, but instead had everything to do with her boyfriend.
[OK, that's forcing & taking intertwined-ness & destiny tropes a bit far !]

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✒ ✋️Hands of Compassion Join ✋️✋️ of Healing °6.3° °12 eps stretched into 16°

She sheds lots of tears. She's probably crying right now. Baek Dong “Joo” is going to give /her/ some relief. Just because she's dead doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings!

Joo is a weird woman. We've all heard of deathbed confessions, but she can hear embalming room last requests. She can speak to the dead. Only in the funeral parlor. Only when it's only Joo with the deceased. Only for a few minutes, and that's only long enough to hear last pleas. In ep1 we see a newly deceased Uber driver beg her to find his son whom he abandoned years (decades) ago.

Joo works with Im Il Seop (In Ho Tae from Misaeng-9.1) as a funeral director. Lee Jun Young, w/ the pinch-able round cheeks.(Melo Movie, Class of Lies) portrays Kim “Tae” Hui. He works at an errand service. One day it's his errand to break up with Joo in place of her actual BF, who hired him to do so. “I no longer want to hold your 🤚 because of what you do with your 👐,” he must say to her on behalf of his client. So, /these/ are the things this guy does for 💰? Joo has a few choice words about what Tae does for a living. After the breakup, she hands some cash to him, tells him to report back to the client that /she's/ breaking up with /that jerk/, NOT the other way around. Then she /kicks/ him. No fair! Tae just works here!

Life hasn't been fair. His little brother died years ago, and his family, career, and life “died” then, too. As it turns out, the little brother ties together several characters in the show. Tae's running an errand to the funeral parlor mere hours later. As he enters (limps) in, there's the woman who kicked him, and it still hurts. Ep2 is a string of fateful encounters. They run into e/o any handful of times. He even meets her dad, unawares, at the columbarium. He gets along well with dad, but Tae does not like Joo. Joo isn't impressed with Tae, either.

MIHY is a 20022 release that is rated 89 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute episodes. Director Shim So Yeon brought us Welcome 2 Life, and screenwriter Lee Seon Hye also penned 20th Century Boy and Girl. MIHY is sweet, often cute, and totally forgettable.

‘Stop following me!’ ‘No, you're the one who's following me!’ The fateful encounters don't stop. He's in an errand business. She's a mortician who is getting last requests from departed souls. They're sending her on errands, and he's hired by many families to help clean up after deaths. Consequently, she's been getting in the way of his work so badly that it looks like the complaints she's generated will put his company under, once and for all. But then he finds the check that she told him to look for. He hands it to the disgruntled bereaved, and exits the job, triumphant. As they say in Forrest Gump, now “shrimping is easy”. Once the general public hears about how Tae recovered and handed over a cashier's check for a whopping sum, *everyone* wants to hire him. Now, the jobs are stacked up, and running errands is a breeze.

In spite of it all, the more he sees her, the more he dislikes her.

Lee Hye Ri from Reply 1988-8.6 is our FL. They found a child (Lee Dam) who looks quite a bit like her to play her when she was young. Weirdly, “Lee Dam” was the name of the character Lee Hye Ri played in My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9. Ms Lee looks better with black hair, not the brown she's sporting here. Long ago dubbed the nation's “little sister“ she's that everyday girl… if the everyday girl manages to be cute, spunky, pretty, funny, winsome, independent, and appealing, all at once. She has a way of appearing capable, but also in need of assistance. She also has a way of looking a tad bored and unhappy, yet she still makes the viewer smile. She's a charmer.

Song Deok Ho from Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7 & Smoke is a local beat cop who falls for Joo instantly. Lee Kyu Han (She Would Never Know-7.3, The Judge from Hell-4.5) plays “Vincent-seeing-other-people-have-fun-makes-me-jealous,” who is Tae’s cousin and boss, Lee Hyang Bok. He's in a perpetual state of distress, especially when the company isn't doing well. Even when the company is doing well, he has to deal with his always-yelling, never-satisfied mother.

Many people react negatively to what Joo does for a living. She hasn't told her father about it. He thinks she's studying for the Civil Service exam. The lies mount up because of that 1 lie. Dad begins to get suspicious. “If you don't do what you want and keep what you want to say inside, it'll end up causing stress… That's the source of all disease… be honest with (loved ones) about everything; there's supposed to be no secrets between two people that love each other. Once you start hiding tiny things from each other, you have a hard time seeing that person because of guilt.” He says that in hopes that she'll open up. Speaking of guilt, we see 1 character smile slightly when he erases evidence. He won't smile again. Not during the course of the show. Not for years. The weight of guilt… well, it /weighs/ on him.

Joo must endure the dead pleading with her to live again, or for this favor or that favor, but she's rarely able to fulfill more than one simple request. There's no time to handle anything more. The first person she attends to whom she knew in life is her friend's grandmother. Joo considered her a grandma as well. In that scene, Joo is the one crying & pleading with Granny to stay. Kim Young Ok (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2, Dear My Friends) plays grandma. This actress is so cute. Her earliest credited work is from 1957. She's almost 90 and she looks like she's in her 70s.

In one scene, a woman who was murdered when she was about to give birth pleads with Joo to save her baby. But she and the baby in her womb already perished. All Joo can do is endure it. Consequently, when that pregnant woman was begging, Joo is holding her, trying her best to console her, & Tae is delivering something. He walks in on them. When he enters the room, the beautiful surroundings that appear for the awakened deceased dissipate, and we're back in the cold, industrial embalming room with the departed no longer talking, but back to being a body. All Tae sees is Joo doing something very weird with the body. He really can't stand her. She tries to explain to him that she can talk to the dead, but he's only more scandalized by her odd behavior.

When Joo relays information that helps Tae prevent a suicide, he starts to soften his stance on her. Then he really softens on her. That begins to harden into positive feelings for her. He asks her out for a drink one night and… they are still together the next morning. Nothing happened, except the connection deepened. After several random encounters Dad & Tae become friends - Dad (played by Park Soo Young from My Mister-9.5 & Children of Nobody) makes friends with everybody. In one of those encounters, dad shows him a picture of his “beautiful daughter" and Tae realizes it's the woman that he'd been spatting with. That was before. Now they're starting to spend quite a bit of time together.

“I don't want to die.” Joo has to speak to a little girl who died when her mother committed a murder suicide. It's an act borne of misplaced views on parental love and protection. Parents who kill children because they intend to commit suicide see the children as property, not an individual human being, says the newscaster when reporting on the incident. “I want to live. Please let me live.” “I want to try dyeing my hair, fly on an airplane, have a boyfriend… drink boba tea one more time. I have so many things I want to do. I don't care if I'm poor. I don't care if I'm hungry. Please save me,” begs the child. Some of the conversations Joo has are agonizing. She wonders if what she's doing means anything. Is she helping?

When Joo needs to talk, she hits up father. Father Michael, that is - he's her uncle. Oh Dae Hwan (Life on Mars, Defendant,,Live Up to Your Name-7.6) is the priest. He has a very nice presence about him. He turns out to be old friends with Vincent - yet another connection.

MIHY is a hope injection. Accepting death, managing regrets and living on is the theme. Are we supposed to derive comfort from what the deceased say and request? I think so, and it's not too hard to guess how most deceased would see things. MIHY is more a commentary on death and loss than a romance, but romance is the vehicle that drives the commentary. It surfaces that Tae’s past was not a smooth road. He was in medical school, he had a girlfriend, and now it's obvious that she's not over him. Just as these two leads start to become interested in e/o, Tae’s ex tries to make moves. The local beat cop makes moves on Joo, too. Joo wants to back off when she sees Tae’s ex come back into his life. Yet, she /doesn't/ want to back off, so she just looks very uncomfortable whenever his ex is around. It's pretty much the same with Tae & the cop. At the same time, Joo's friend is falling for her immediate supervisor, In Ho, so love is in the air. (The secondary romance had the potential to boost the show up, but they treated it like a throwaway thing). Regardless of outside interference, Tae & Joo go together like ping and pong. Their relationship is sweet and cozy.

For most of its run, MIHY feels like a quiet space. This duo is comfortable. This is my 3rd look at Lee Hye Ri, and I must bow to her capabilities. For a tiny little thing, she's like a big comfy sofa. She's got that you're-home-now-everything-is-okay vibe mastered. Unfortunately, in the end MIHY didn't build up to anything and then it fizzled away. There is much to like about this show, but when the time came for the big reveal and wrap up, they lost me: It's cobbled together badly, it's half-hearted, and it's wholly depressing. The bad guy's actions and motivations don't make sense, and he's supposedly smart. It's written weakly. This is probably the furthest into the episode count that a show lost me. They don't have enough content for 16 episodes, though they don't run into serious trouble until the last couple. The intangibles can be hard to define, but just like the dead can't cross the threshold of the exit from the embalming room, MIHY can't cross the threshold from avg to good. It's sad.

On the + side, MIHY does the opposite of cheapening life. It reinforces that every life is precious and we have obligations to e/o. It wraps up nicely with a moving explanation of why and how this happened to Joo and why she and Tae are so very perfect for e/o. It isn't the worst, nor is it the best. It will kill some time.


QUOTES🗣

Success is the mother of failure.

Everything's an excuse.


IMHO〰🖍

📣6.5 📝6 🎭7.6 💓6 🦋4 🎨6.5 🎵/🔊7 🔚7 🤗2.5 ▪ 🌞6⚡4.5 😅2 😭5 😱3 😯2 🤢3 🤔3.5 💤1.5

Shazams: Goodbye My Friend, by JAMIE

Age 14+ Language: b!+ch, F💣s - all in the first 20 minutes or so. Then, not much, but it seems like every episode has some R-rated language. Scary elements not suitable for younger children. Rated: 15+


Re-📺? This is fine to watch once, but I'm not in a hurry to circle back.



In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Crazy Love-7.8,
Racket Boys-8.3,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+),
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Reply 1988-8.6,
Oh My Venus-7.4K,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
Uncanny counter S1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4,
Be Melodramatic-8.7,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
Move To Heaven-8.4,
Misaeng-9.1,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
Hospital Playlist 9 (give it 3 episodes to get warmed up),
Itaewon Class-8.9,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
SKY Castle-9,
My Mister 9.5,
Wonderful World-7.8,
Parasite-9,
Mother-8.8
The Wailing-8.8,


Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
Heirs-7.3,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
Something in them Rain-9,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Find Yourself-8.9,
Hidden Love-7.8


Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5

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A decent healing drama that feels arbitrary at times until the big reveal

The premise of this Show is centred on the FL who just started work as a funeral director. She suddenly began to see the spirit of the dead under her care and can interact with them. There are some caveats but that is not important right now. The first apparition who appears before the FL happens to be the younger brother of the ML and he asked her for help. In most cases, this is the general structure of subplots. Various ghosts will ask the FL to help them to fulfil a final task on their behalf. Sometimes, the task is quite elaborate and comes with a touching backstory while others seem to be an afterthought that the Show squeezes in just before the credit rolls. There doesn't appear to be any obvious link between the various tasks.

As the story progresses, a central plot begins to take shape which linked some of the threads together, but it was not until the last episode that the writer-nim gave us the grand reveal that ties everything together. The Show is quite melodramatic, and I would seriously doubt anyone can sit through all 16 episodes without being affected at least once. The writer-nim really toy with our emotions in the last episode but a more astute viewer might see this as a cynical exercise to heighten the melodrama. (I’m trying to keep this spoiler free so please bear with me.)

In hindsight the hiding of the connections between the various threads did the show a disservice because while the impact of the final reveal is significant, we get the “Now I get it!” moment once and it is over. Ergo, the middle section of the show can feel a little adrift. The love line of the leads is certainly front and centre during this section. You might also start to wonder why all these apparitions appear before the FL and only her.

Speaking of the love line of the OTP, it is nice and serviceable. There is a bit of skinship, and they have a decent amount of chemistry, but it is not amazing. Their relationship is pretty much on rails. After saying that, the 2OTP’s romance is even weaker. They are an odd pairing and is mostly used as light comedic relief.

I think that is the key weakness of the show. While the idea of helping ghosts to fulfil their last wishes is reasonably novel and rewarding, the execution is a bit uneven. The Show really comes together once we find out the raison d’etre but that is almost too late. The romances, healing and growth of the leads are mostly predetermined. It is nice and rewarding to watch as it unfolds, but the Show can feels like a scrapbook of highlights but also a fair bit of standard fillers.

In terms of acting, it is generally good. The leads earned their keeps. The poor FL has certainly been put through the emotional spin cycle a few times. There are lots of cameos and the veteran actors can really deliver the goods. In fact, most of the senior support cast are superior to other shows.

In the end, it was a decent, watchable show. It tried to be clever with the causality plot, but it only partially succeeded. It is most likely an one-time watch for me.

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Emotional sweet some what light drama not smart one

This drama is very light and sweet, it's not extraordinary or unique, it's just a sweet peaceful type of drama
I got emotional a lot watching it and I consider any drama that makes me emotional, laugh, and crying to be a very good drama
it served its purpose for me
it made me feel happy sometimes and sad crying loudly other times
its love story isn't that touching, it's more like a healing drama
it made parting loved ones peaceful and calming,, healing the people left behind just with that thought of their parting loved ones at peace
don't watch it if you want something very funny or something very smart, it's not at all
also, they dragged the story of the dead kid too long and made it somewhat thrilling a bit but they failed at that unfortunately
overall it's emotional drama but not smart drama
it's for your heart, not your brain
I gave it 7.5 ratings because it touched my heart

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Ghost Whisperer KR version

Okay, so the premise made it sound like we were going to get some Ghost Whisperer Melinda Gordon action, and that truly captured my attention as it was my favourite show growing up. The main difference is that this show is significantly more lighthearted and doesn't always focus on Baek Dong Joo. The show does a really good job of balancing heavy elements of death and grief with some light-hearted romance. I enjoyed that every character was able to have some type of spotlight outside of their development with Baek Dong Joo.

Kim Tae Hee is the epitome of pathetic (the good kind) as he interacts with Dong Joo and watching them learn and heal together is what made me continue to watch even though the drama went a little off Script.

The ending is extremely bittersweet with an emphasis on Bitter. I would recommend watching this if you're looking for a good heartfelt drama. And I was crying by the end of a lot of the episodes

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